MORE MARTINA FRANCA – MORE BASILICATA
14th October
MORE GOOD FOOD – WHERE IS THIS WONDERFUL DELI-CAFÉ?
Graham and I went back to Martina Franca to explore it further. There is much to enjoy there if you love history and quaint old buildings. We found a great little place with more good food for our lunch. I wish I could find it on the Internet, to give it a good review. It is a tiny WIFI café on one of the main streets. I can see it in my mind’s eye, but unfortunately, we have no photos.
Inside the entrance is a glassed-in counter displaying excellent hams, sausages and cheeses. Further into the dark, beamed interior another room has been opened up. It is large enough to hold just four small tables, covered in red checked cloths. Everything is of great age except the food – and that was simple but superb. The salad was crisp and tasty, and the steaks cooked just as we like them.
MORE GOOD FOOD IN SMALL FAMILY RESTAURANTS
After years of experimenting, we have found more good food, reasonably priced, in these small family restaurants than anywhere else. This one was a proud little family business. Father took our orders, and I believe, did all the cooking (unless Mother was also in the kitchen). One son waited on the tables filled with Italian families, while the other ran the shop. When we were paying our bill a young and pretty woman entered and hung up her jacket.
“My daughter,” explained the proprietor, and names were exchanged all round, our hands shaken and calls of ‘Arrividerci’ followed us down the street. How I wish it were possible to go back to all these places that bring warmth in remembering them.
15th October
MORE BASILICATA – WE EXPLORE IN DEPTH.
We were left with three weeks to further explore Basilicata for ourselves. The temperature had gradually dropped from 36C (96.8 Faranheit) to about 21C (69.8F), though we would soon have a few days as low as 15C. (59F). Graham had entirely lost his paunch, due to heat, the Italian diet and more walking than we generally do. I lost quite a bit too – but we stumpy types seem to hang onto our tummies longer!
We did a lot of exploring in the area around Grottole.
MORE BASILICATA HOME COOKING – BELLISSIMO!
We found a little family-run trattoria in Miglionico that Lolly would have loved. The family did not speak one word of English, but somehow they understood us and produced a feast. We enjoyed the special homemade ‘Little Ears’ pasta with mushrooms, meat and tomatoes; then a nice fresh salad and 3 kinds of grilled meat.
MORE FUN teasing GRAHAM
It gave me great pleasure to tell Graham that the particular item he was cooing over was a sweetbread – something he wouldn’t touch in England. Maybe that will change now and I won’t be deprived any longer… Suggest that if you don’t know of them you Google ‘Sweetbread’ meat! We also had fabulously good French fries. It was not expensive. I sent an account of this to Lolly, back in America. I stated how I had a bit of fun with Graham, letting him wolf his sweetbreads down before enlightening him with what he’d just eaten (according to a popular but erroneous idea that they are sheeps testicles, that I had been given way back by giggling girlfriends.) This is quite wrong – they are really the Thymus or Pancreas glands of veal or lamb, though other meats like beef or pork can be offered if you are lucky enough to find a butcher selling these delicious morsels. Lolly says that in New Orleans they also call them sweetbreads.
MORE FOOD FOR YOUR MONEY AT THIS ‘TRAT’
If you visit Miglionico, do eat at the humble L’Incontro “A true family trattoria…” We had two or three very tasty meals there during our stay. The décor is unremarkable, but a window table had us looking out over the town walls to the plains and olive groves below.
The menu is small, the price very reasonable, and wine and water was on the table. Superb, honest country food cooked with love. It can be found on the
MORE BASILICATA – ITS LIT-UP LANDSCAPE IS UNIQUE
Everything IS special in BASILICATA – and really different from the rest of Italy; and certainly from Britain: Landscape like nothing we’d ever seen. Not smart compared to Tuscany and Umbria, but of a unique beauty. The endless swells and hills change with every light. Ranges of mountains in the distance appear in every shade of grey, lavender and blue.
It is all very subtle, and deceptively gentle looking, considering the number of destructive landslides that have happened – because everything is built and grown on clay. Mind you, there are many impressive ruined farmhouses around; most caused by landslip, but others from the sheer impossibility of making a good enough living from the land.
A lot of poverty, but as in Ireland and other places that have known bad times, the food is good because all organic, and the people are wonderful: funny, kind and generous.
Text by – Jackie Usher, SWWJ. (aka author Debbie Darkin, & ‘Graham Liverpool’ on Trip Advisor.)
Photographs by – Graham Usher.
December 11, 2018 @ 11:09 pm
Ꭺppгeciate tһe rеcommendatiօn. Will try it out.